Vernacular Terms Research Articles

In the Center of Meaning: Ziarah Tradition in Java

This essay describes the beliefs and practices associated with the notion of ziarah in a single community, that of Bayat, a small district (kecamatan) in Klaten between Yogyakarta and Surakarta. There are some of terms from Bayat in this text, because it is revealing to consider how key terms have been used within their culture of origin. In elucidating ziarah practices and its interpretations, visitors in Bayat refer to the cultural contexts with which they are familiar. The logic of ziarah thus reflects visitor's everyday life experiences. Applying vernacular terms used in Bayat entails taking this cultural context into consideration.DOI: 10.15408/sdi.v7i1.716

Revision of the family Chlamydiaceae Rake (Rickettsiales): unification of the psittacosis-lymphogranuloma venereum-trachoma group of organisms in the genus Chlamydia Jones, Rake and Stearns, 1945

Since 1 945, taxonomists have made no less than seven attempts to define the bacteria of the family Chlamydiaceae Rake which includes the etiologic agents of psittacosis, lymphogranuloma venereum, and trachoma. These bacteria are often designated by the vernacular term, PLT group of agents. Classifications were proposed by Moshovsky (1945), Rake (1 948, 1 957), Krasil’nikov (1 949), Zhdanov and Korenblit (1 949), Rhyzkov (1 950), Zhdanov (1953) and Levaditi, Roger and Destombes (1 964). The result was to increase the number of genera for the PLT group culminating in the Levaditi et al. proposal of four genera for this bacterial group: Chlamydia Rake, Miyagawanella Brumpt, Beds onia Meyer, and Rakeia Levaditi, Roger and Destombes. Evidence for continued recognition of these genera was examined in the light of recent knowledge of PLT organisms, and the validity of each name according to the rules of the International Code of Nomenclature of Bacteria and Viruses was ascertained. On the grounds that the taxonomic significance of properties common to bacteria of the PLT group (morphology, developmental cycle and group antigen) outweighed the value of the characteristics that separated the various species or strains (host preferences and specific antigenicity of lipoproteins of the cell wall), it was concluded that all of the species of bacteria of the PLT group properly belonged in a single genus. Therefore, their unification in the genus Chlamydia Jones, Rake and Stearns, 1945, is proposed. The validly published generic name Chlamydia replaces Miyagawanella Brumpt 1 938 which was not validly published and has priority over Bedsonia Meyer (1 9 5 3) and Rakeia Levaditi, Roger and Destombes (1964). Furthermore, the term “virus” is incorrect and misleading when applied to these bacteria.

Nationality Preferences and National Stereotypes in Ghana before Independence

Abstract : The primary aim of the study was to discover, first, the extent to which Africans are able to differentiate among the various nationalities of whites and, second, how they felt about each of those they knew. Owing to the fact that the vernacular terms for 'white man' or 'European' have a broader meaning than their English counterparts, a wider coverage of nationalities was obtained; and as it turned out, this unearned increment considerably enhanced the interest of the findings. (Author)

Guide to the Whales, Porpoises, and Dolphins (Order Cetacea), exhibited in the Department of Zoology, British Museum (Natural History), Cromwell Road, London, S. W.

THE whale-room in the Natural History Museum is one of the most notable and interesting features of the national collection, and the publication of a new guide to its contents calls for a word of comment. Within fifty pages Mr. Lydekker has compressed not only a series of clues to the models, skins, and other preparations, but has furnished students of zoology generally with a most useful and well-illustrated summary of the chief characters of the Cetacea and of their presumable ancestors. In a prefatory note, Dr. Harmer gives reason for confining exhibits of this order to skeletons and models, but it is to be hoped that the public will always have an opportunity of seeing the skins of some of these impressive animals, in order to judge of their proportions. The only feature of this excellent guide that we could have wished more fully expounded, relates to the puzzling vernacular names of whales that are used by fishermen. The members of our own branch of the international sea investigation are often quite at a loss to know what these names correspond to in scientific nomenclature, and their experience is not unique. The matter has some importance since the cetacean fauna of the north-western seas is probably more familiar to fisher men than to naturalists, and the fisherman's records cannot be stated precisely until we are able to understand the vernacular terms in use.